The Sandwich Generation -
Two young daughters,my parents,
two dogs, and a job working with older adults...I am living a sandwich life between the young and old! Evidently that wasn't enough, so I have added 9 chickens too! Update! 15 chickens!

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Special weekly series starring lots of guest spots!

If my life was made into a weekly TV show, this week would be the one with all the guest spots! More people have been in my life than usual and most have been characters that some star would love to play.

I'll start with the most recent one since he just rang my door bell again!

If you do not know my father, you are missing a treat. But if you have ever been within a million mile radius of him, you know him. Dad does not know any strangers. Now that does not mean he knows your name, but he always has a kind greeting and a genuine interest in your well being, so what he did does not surprise me.

A man is walking down the street and Dad is outside taking care of whatever needs taken care of. They strike up a conversation, the man has quite a story, and so Dad hires him for me, to cut down some broken branches on a really tall Cedar tree that was damaged from the snow.

This, of course, was not the only work that needed to be done, so I hired him to clean up my yard, then he was referred to a neighbor, and in between he tells his whole life story.

If you were in Dallas a few years ago, you could not have missed the news story about the gas tank explosion at a business near downtown. I'm not sure if you can make this link work, but it tells how horrific the scene was and about the injured.

This man insists he was the one standing there telling the driver he did not have it hooked up correctly right as the man hit the connection with a wrench and caused the explosion.

So he escaped with permanent injuries, but still escaped. But he is only receiving a small workers comp check and has not received a settlement check yet so he is dependent on the kindness of strangers to get by.

Today he needed a ride back to his boarding house to meet a man for something. Yesterday he just needed a ride. Friday night he just needed $30 more dollars to pay his weekly rent.

Who knows!? But he would be a great character for a guest star in my weekly series. I don't think we have heard the end of him yet!

Some other "featured" guests would be from what happened Thursday.

I have a bad habit of listening to just one more story on NPR when I get to work, but unfortunately I fall asleep a lot of times while sitting there listening. This time I got a rude wake up when the radio stopped playing! I jumped to see who had gotten into my car and turned it off, but nothing that dramatic, the battery had died!

My lease is up next month and so I really did not want to spend the money on a battery but since the car refuses to go without one I was stuck.

Thankfully our police force at the hospital will rescued damsels in distress and the officer responded promptly and courteously giving me a jump and sending me on my way to get a battery. i am just not good at these things any more. When I had my VW for years and years, I spent lots of time looking for the parts to make it go, but when I sold it I got into a terrible habit of leasing cars I could not afford to buy and always got rid of them right before they started having problems, so I did not even know where to go buy a battery!

I drove to the local auto parts store and explained my situation to the man behind the counter who was chewing such a big wad of gum it was hard to understand what he said after "too bad". Finally I just asked what he was saying and what did it mean. He meant too bad because he wasn't going to help me!

OK, so I went to a place not known for their customer service, Wal Mart, but was pleasantly surprised when the young woman behind the counter proceeded to check and see if I really needed a battery and then was quickly served by their mechanic. When the radio would not work, the tech and his boss worked a long time trying to figure out how to re-activate the radio. So I was shocked and very pleased over actually getting customer service from a company that usually lacks that!

All good parts for those "special" guests!

But the oddest part of Thursday will be the role a neighbor played in my freaky day. This man has lived across the street for a long time, off and on, and has at times been a great friend to our family. I guess that is why I was so surprised to realize he was lashing out at me when he yelled across the street to me. It took a while to understand that he was threatening me and our dogs if I did not control their barking! We do have dogs who would even wear out Cesar Millan! But to sit across the street and yell seemed extreme! Much less to threaten us!

Death and dying have been a major component to the week's activities and I'm not sure if someone wants to play that role in my show!

A long time volunteer of ours has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. All he wants to do now is be taken to the Veterans Cemetery and get some peace. While recently hospitalized, he screamed and hollered at all staff trying to help him. He seems so defiant and angry. I would hate to face death while being such a sad person.

Our co-worker has been dealing with her own issues of death and dying this week, as she received a call that her brother had passed away. He lived alone and had heart condition so he had friends in place to check on him and how to handle things in the event he could not. A really sad part of the story is that he was found dead after passing away three weeks earlier! He was obviously more alone than he thought since it took so long for his friends to find him.

On Wednesday evening I even went to a program on death and dying and trying to find a humorous connection to it. From the discussion, it is obviously something we all need to talk about more often but some great actors would have prime roles playing all of these parts.